The Select Committee on Legislative Facilities, Technology and Process voted last month to bar photo- and broadcast journalists from entering the halls that run next to the House and Senate floors. The rule change eliminates the opportunity to gather eye-level images of lawmakers at work in each chamber, relegating journalists to documenting what’s happening on the floors from the galleries above.
If adopted by the Management Council in November, the policy change would become the latest in a series of progressive restraints applied to the diminished legislative press corps in the People’s House. Aside from a basement media room in the Capitol Extension, journalists have been able to use their press credentials to access the corridors adjacent to the chamber floors — until now.
“This change is at the request of the current presiding officers,” Legislative Service Office Director Matt Obrecht told the committee at the Sept. 18 meeting.
“With the amount of traffic in those hallways … it’s just not a place for photographers. Photographers can have access to the floor from the galleries,” Obrecht said of legislative leadership’s request.
The Wyoming Press Association sees things differently.
“It has been the role of the fourth estate to report on the work being done for the people of Wyoming by their legislators. To limit or revoke access sets a dangerous precedent not only for the Wyoming Legislature itself, but for local government agencies to follow suit,” Darcie Hoffland, executive director of the association, told WyoFile in an email.
The committee voted 4-2 in favor of the policy change with Rep. Mike Yin (D-Jackson) and Sen. Cale Case (R-Lander) in dissent. Sens. Dan Laursen (R-Powell) and Chris Rothfuss (D-Laramie), and Reps. Dalton Banks and Dan Zwonitzer (R-Cheyenne) voted in favor of the new press restrictions.
Committee discussion
Several committee members pointed to the Legislature’s live stream — which captures and broadcasts both the House and Senate floor as well as committee meetings — as an alternative form of transparency and justification for the removal of press access.
The Legislature cemented its streaming policy during the COVID-19 pandemic after first debating the idea of broadcasting more interim committee meetings online in 2017.
Now, with everything that’s said at the microphones being captured in audio and video, “I think that’s somewhat the reason this policy came forward as well … you don’t need that same access because it is much more transparent,” Rep. Dan Zwonitzer (R-Cheyenne) said at the September select committee meeting.
Rothfuss agreed.
“I think the discussion that we’ve had so far about the fact that our technology has improved dramatically to ensure access makes this a reasonable step,” Rothfuss said.
Other lawmakers, including Case, instead contrasted today’s arrangements with what once was.
“There was a time, and it doesn’t seem like it was that long ago, that the media were actually permitted to sit on the floor of both chambers, specifically at that large table that’s to … the Speaker’s right or the President’s right,” he said.
While Case also commended the technological advances the Legislature has made, he pointed to Rules Committee meetings, which often take place on the floor in an off-mic huddle, or in leadership’s offices, as an example of the no-journalists policy’s shortcomings.
Lawmakers typically report on such meetings to the floors after the fact, but “they’re not really public meetings,” Case said. Media had previously been allowed to attend and observe such Rules Committee confabs, he said, but that’s not been true in more recent years.
“So that’s always been a bit bothersome to me about the transparency of the Rules Committee,” Case said.
Yin told WyoFile after the meeting that he understood the desire for the proposed change, but didn’t think there was adequate justification.
“I think it’s important that we have as much journalism as possible for the Legislature,” he said.
Wyoming Tribune Eagle Managing Editor Brian Martin told WyoFile he’s hoping for some kind of compromise.
“My hope is that they will decide to keep access open and create a system where media can take turns,” Martin said.
It’s difficult to get good photographs of lawmakers from the galleries, Martin said, adding that it’s much easier to do so from the side corridors.
Overall, Martin said he was concerned about the Legislature continuing to look for more ways to restrict media access to the People’s House.
Whether to adopt the policy is ultimately up to the Legislature’s Management Council, which is scheduled to meet Nov. 7.
Interesting because the news today is really not news but biased opinions and frankly sometimes more like propaganda. Rarely do reporters talk about facts or include all the facts but interject opinions and ignore the complete picture – and it’s coming from both sides of the isle. Maybe journalism needs to talk a long hard look in the mirror and get away from the propaganda and love fest with liberals or conservatives and get back to just reporting the factual news without bias so readers can develop their own opinion – and this includes WyoFile which has it owns bias.
My experience covering the legislature for eight years as a reporter is that most elected officials are sincere in their ways and efforts to represent their constituents and the state. Good, honest people. But stuff like this only serves to create a distance, and that serves no one…perhaps it is somewhat symbolic, but that has its place as well.
And I have yet to meet a politician who does not like to get their photo in the local paper, or face on TV.
Greg Fladager
PS – Maybe there is a reason why the Founding Fathers put the press in the First Amendment (not the Second, Third, etc.), right up there with Religion, Speech, and Assembly.
“Rules and any fool can see, we don’t no” blind hypocrites being revealed to the people.
Are you kidding? Concealed guns are ok but we are not allowed to have our news representatives in the hallway or chambers to relay what our representatives are doing?
What craziness is this?
Only anyone who has been paying attention to the steady creep of fascism into WY politics (and storming into National politics) is able to see the incremental steps to curtail the press for what they are. Democracy dies in darkness. The White Christian Nationalism and White Supremacists that have for decades stained the area from Whitefish, MT thru the panhandle of Idaho out to Spokane are now flooding their ideologies into the WY Legislature. Wake up, WY. Your frog is boiling.
I’m tired of public officials not wanting to be transparent about their actions. What are they afraid of? Public officials are public servants to us, the public.
Tonight’s the Elk Mountain town hall meeting. This local government has taken away citizens participation then to speak a citizen must have their reasons approved by the mayor. Which is no longer granted if you’re on the black list. Why, this town operates like the city council did with the injustices filmed in the moive Jaw’s. Fair an ado for citizens who truly have no rights to speak. For sharks lurking in this city government took Justice out of individuals the right to have Justice for all.
Politicians talk about our freedoms as they work to remove them. Maintaining full press access is critical for preserving transparency in government. Journalists play a vital role in ensuring that the public is informed about legislative processes and decisions. By relegating them to the galleries, the ability to capture key moments, observe lawmakers’ actions up close, and hold officials accountable is diminished.
While live streaming is a step toward transparency, it cannot fully replace the depth of coverage that in-person reporting offers. Journalists provide not just images but context, analysis, and a wider perspective that a static live feed cannot. Moreover, huddles and off-mic conversations are often where important legislative discussions happen—an area where the press’s presence has historically shed light on critical, otherwise hidden, decision-making.
Limiting access could set a troubling precedent for further media restrictions, not only in the state legislature but in other government settings, as noted by the Wyoming Press Association. Open access to all public areas of legislative action is a hallmark of a healthy democracy, and any move to reduce that access undermines the principle of government transparency.
A compromise might be possible, such as allowing journalists scheduled access to the hallways or granting more press passes, but outright restrictions would be a step backward. We must ensure that press freedom and the public’s right to know are protected.
By maintaining full access, we support the Fourth Estate’s essential role in democracy.
This piece of legislation is a perfect example of a solution to a problem that does not exist. I’ve photographed the Wyoming Legislature since first joining the Casper Star-Tribune in 1998, and in all those years there has never been an issue with photographers or broadcast journalists blocking traffic or causing disruptions to business at the Capitol. Photographers don’t like stumbling over each other, so we usually wait out of the way for each other to get shots, or trade locations with an unspoken mutual respect. I have always had cordial interactions with lawmakers and office staff, who were unfazed by our presence. Our time in the hallways is often short, getting candid expressions and interactions on the floor before moving to a different area. This unnecessary action is a disservice to Wyoming citizens, and I can’t help but feel like it’s the start of a slippery slope that could increasingly reduce journalist’s access to state buildings, and even serve as an example and initiative for local governments to reduce access as well.
These are people that have moved here and want to change our state to be like where they came from. Wyoming will come out the loser. Wyoming conservatives used to be live & let live. Why are we allowing our state to be changed by newcomers with a conservative views that is not what was developed here.
The Wyoming state motto, “Equal Rights” is being replaced by “Go back to where you came from!”
Are reporters with concealed weapons OK?
Well played.
and why is it that a democrat (Yin) is concerned about freedom of the press while our “freedom loving” republicans are trying to curtail the press? Is our modern day GOP now that whacked? Yes, they are